Joshua Tree

   So I just decided to pick up this blogging thing. I feel like such a nerd, but hey, I am just trying to keep my loved ones back home and abroad up to speed with my life because I am the worst person in the world for keeping in touch with my friend and family. Starting now I hope to share the highlights of my life out East, and more so, where my adventures take me.

   I have to post-date this one trip report because it is too awesome to pass...Joshua Tree.

   Located in Southeast California, J-Tree is the most outlandish place I have ever been. The desert plateau, the abnormal joshua trees, the sand scared landscape, and oh yes...the rock. These all make for the most unreal climbing local I have been to date.

Cory soloing around, doing Cory stuff.

   Anna and I were fortunate enough to hitch on to the Adamson family who have been making Joshua Tree there March break vacation spot for more than a decade. In total there were probably 20 New Brunswickers in J-tree for that week, not a bad showing. It is great to see such a strong climbing community from such a small part of Canada get out to these amazing locations and tear it up on the rock.

   Some words on climbing in J-Tree. Slabby, cracky, sticky, sloppy, balancey, heady, scary, and f-bombing awesome. As Steve put it, "you only have bolts in J-tree where you need them, not where you want them". This means that after a pitch of 5.7 crack climbing you may have another 100' pitch of 5.6 face climbing...with one bolt for pro.  After all if you made it up the 5.7 then you must be able to climb the 5.6 so one bolt will be enough. Also head up, the down climbs can be more sketchy than the routes.

   My highlights..."Clean and Jerk" 5.10c, steep crack and face climbing, my hardest trad lead to date. It was a battle the whole way up.

"Clean and Jerk"

  

I think a part of Dan died after climbing "Clean and Jerk".

One cam and 4 bolts later, there is my
girl atop a lovely J-Tree Slab.

   Every route was a highlight now that I think of it. Doesn't matter if I was climbing a 5.6 or a 5.10, every route took focus to keep my head together and technique that I don't get to practice very often or at all living in New Brunswick. Anna got some great leads in too, particular note was some sketchy run-out slab that would have had my calfs shaking like Elvis. I also had the hilarious opportunity to witness the Eric shake down on a tricky fist crack up a big butt crack boulder around Echo Rocks. Great night climbs with PJ and John, cool exposure with Steve and Anna on the head stone, and a particularly stressful climb up, "walk on the wild side"...but lets not talk about that.

   Beans, hotdogs, pasta, tomato sauce, and some salsa to spice it up was the cuisine of choice. Less time cooking meant more time to drink around the fire, sleep, and climb the next day. The weather was perfect less one sand storm that had Anna and I shaking sand out of our hair for the next 2 days.

   After a quick stint in Red Rocks and a boring night on the strip in Vegas we were back home...but craving for more.

 






All and all, if you are a climber go to J-Tree!

New Brunswick Invades Kamouraska

The Classic "Moby Dick" (5.11b).
Sad to say that this is the most repeated photo from Kamo...but I couldn't help myself.

I accompanied the New Brunswicker hoards to Kamouraska for the May long weekend. Between the frigid winds on Saturday and the roasting sun on Sunday it was an awesome trip. Many baked goods were had at the amazing Kamouraska bakery, where the pastries parallel the awesomeness of the climbing routes. Kamo was a great place to get milage on some difficult and stress free sport routes. Highlights were a couple 5.11 on-sights including the classic Moby Dick, and my first 5.12a Red Point in Canada! Funny thing with Kamo is the whole "+" grading system. Anna, Pete, Camilla and I finally decided that when a route in Kamo is graded with a "+" it means it is any grad harder that given to it. This was exemplified as Pete cursed his way up "La diagonal du fou" (5.9+). Good to get out on the rock with everyone. Till next time.

Like true New Brunswickers, if they
had climbed as much as they drank, they
would have sent every route in Kamo.